Chapter XVIII: Appendix (3)

[Footnote 349: Timbs' _Clubs and Club Life_.]

[Footnote 350: In the _Encyclopédie Méthodique_.]

[Footnote 351: Arthur Young's _Travels in France in the Years 1787-9_.]

[Footnote 352: Sheen's _Wine and other fermented Liquors_.]

[Footnote 353: Amongst other English customers of the firm in 1788, 1789, and 1790 were 'Milords' Farnham and Findlater, the latter of whom was supplied with 120 bottles of the vintage of 1788; Manning, of the St. Alban's Tavern, London, who ordered 130 bottles of vin de Champagne, at 3 livres or 2_s._ the bottle, to be delivered in the autumn by M. Caurette; Messrs. Felix Calvert & Sylvin, who took two sample bottles at 5_s._; and Mr. Lockhart, banker, of 36 Pall Mall, who in 1790 paid 3_s._ per bottle for 360 bottles of the vintage of 1788. The high rate of exchange in our favour is shown by the 54_l._ covering this transaction being taken as 1495 livres 7 sols 9 deniers, or about 28 livres per pound sterling.]

[Footnote 354: Walker's _The Original_.]

[Footnote 355: 'The Fair of Britain's Isle' (_Convivial Songster_, 1807).]

[Footnote 356: _Diary of Mrs. Colonel St. George, written during her Sojourn amongst the German Courts in 1799 and 1800._]

[Footnote 357: Moore's _The Twopenny Post-bag_, 1813.]

[Footnote 358: Moore's _Parody of a Celebrated Letter_.]

[Footnote 359: The compound known as 'the Regent's Punch' was made out of 3 bottles of Champagne, 2 of Madeira, 1 of hock, 1 of curaçoa, 1 quart of brandy, 1 pint of rum, and 2 bottles of seltzer-water, flavoured with 4 lbs. bloom raisins, Seville oranges, lemons, white sugar-candy, and diluted with iced green tea instead of water (Tovey's _British and Foreign Spirits_).]

[Footnote 360: Captain Gronow's _Reminiscences_.]

[Footnote 361: Ibid.]

[Footnote 362: Prince Puckler Muskau's _Letters_.]

[Footnote 363: Miss Burney's _Memoirs_.]

[Footnote 364: Henderson's _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_, 1824. Henderson, who appears to have visited the Champagne in 1822, remarks of the remaining _crûs_ of the province: 'The wines of the neighbouring territories of Mareuil and Dizy are of similar quality to those of Ay, and are often sold as such. Those of Hautvillers, on the other hand, which formerly equalled, if not surpassed, the growths just named, have been declining in repute since the suppression of the monastery, to which the principal vineyard belonged.']

[Footnote 365: Moore's _The Fudge Family Abroad_, 1818.]

[Footnote 366: Moore's _The Sceptic_.]

[Footnote 367: Moore's _Illustration of a Bore_.]

[Footnote 368: Moore's _The Summer Fête_, 1831.]

[Footnote 369: Ibid.]

[Footnote 370: Ibid.]

[Footnote 371: Moore's _Diary_, June 1819.]

[Footnote 372: Lockhart's _Life of Sir Walter Scott_.]

[Footnote 373: Scott's _Diary_, November 15, 1826.]

[Footnote 374: Byron's _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_, 1808.]

[Footnote 375: Byron's _Don Juan_, canto xv. stanza lxv., 1821.]

[Footnote 376: Ibid. canto xvi. stanza ix.]

[Footnote 377: Ibid. canto xiii. stanzas xxxvii., xxxviii.]

[Footnote 378: According to recent statistics issued by the Chamber of Commerce of Reims, the department of the Marne contains 16,500 hectares of vineyards (40,755 acres), of which 2465 hectares are situated in the district of Vitry-le-François; 555 hectares in that of Châlons; 700 in that of Sainte Menehould; 7624 in that of Reims; and 5587 in the Epernay district, where the finest qualities of Champagne are grown. The value of the wine produced annually in these districts exceeds 60,000,000 francs (nearly 2-1/2 millions sterling). During the last thirty years, the value of these vineyards has increased fourfold. The 'population vigneronne' of the department is 16,093 inhabitants.]

[Footnote 379: In the year 1871.]

[Footnote 380: The blending of black and white grapes together, although its advantages had been recognised in the _Maison Rustique_ of 1574, appears not to have been successfully carried out at Ay till the days of Dom Perignon. 'Formerly,' remarks Pluche, 'it was very difficult to preserve the wine of Ay longer than one year. When the juice of the white grapes, whose quantity was very great in that vineyard, began to assume a yellowish hue, it became predominant, and created a change in all the wine; but ever since the white grapes have been disused, the Marne wines may be easily kept for the space of four or five years' (_Spectacle de la Nature_, 1732).]

[Footnote 381: From time immemorial the vineyards of Ay and Dizy paid tithes to the Abbey of Hautvillers, the former a sixtieth and the latter an eleventh of their produce. These dues were, by a decree of 1670, levied at the gate of Ay. In 1772, Tirant de Flavigny, a large wine-grower, who farmed, amongst other vineyards, 'Les Quartiers' at Hautvillers, insisted on leaving the tithe of grapes at the foot of the vine for collection by the abbey tithe-collectors. The Abbot Alexandre Ange de Talleyrand Périgord refused to accept them, and insisted in turn that the whole of the grapes should either be brought to the gate of Hautvillers or converted into wine in the vineyard, and the eleventh part of this wine handed to his representative. From a _procès verbal_ drawn up by the Mayor of Ay, it seems that the inhabitants were willing to pay a monetary commutation, as was the prevailing custom, or to leave the abbot's share of grapes in the vineyards; but objected to the tithe being taken, usually with considerable delay, on each basket, whereby the remaining grapes were bruised, and the possibility of bright white wine being made from them rendered exceedingly doubtful. It was not till 1787 that it was finally settled that the tithes should be paid in money at the rate of so much per arpent, and it is plain that the abbot's chief object was to throw as much difficulty as he could in the way of rival makers of fine wines.]

[Footnote 382: This curse is alluded to in the following verse from a sixteenth-century ballad written against the men of Ay:

'Tu n'auras ni chien ni chat
Pour te chanter _Libera_,
Et tu mourras mau-chrétien,
Toi qu'a maudit Saint Trézain.'

The fountain of St. Tresain, which enjoys the reputation of curing diseases, and in the water of which it is pretended stolen food cannot be cooked, still exists at Mareuil.]

[Footnote 383: The yield from the Ay vineyards averages five pièces, or 220 gallons per acre. Arthur Young, writing in 1787, estimated that the arpent (rather more than the acre) produced from two to six pièces of wine, or an average of four pièces, two of which sold for 200 livres, one for 150 livres, and one for 50 livres. He valued the arpent of vines at from 3000 to 6000 livres. Henderson, in his _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_, says that in 1822 there were a thousand arpents on the hill immediately behind the village of Ay valued at from 10,000 to 12,000 francs the arpent, and that one plot had shortly before fetched 15,000 francs per arpent.]

[Footnote 384: In 1873, two years later, the price mounted as high as 1000 francs; while in 1880, owing to the yield being far below an average one and the quality promising to be exceedingly good, the wine was bought up before the grapes were pressed at prices ranging from 1100 to 1400 francs the pièce.]

[Footnote 385: In one of these, dated 1243, mention is made of the 'vinea parva' belonging to the Abbey of Avenay, and of the 'vineam Warneri in loco qui dicetur Monswarins,' perhaps the existing clos Warigny. In another of Philip the Fair, dated 1300, and confirming the abbey in the possession of property purchased from Jeanne de Sapigneul, we read of 'unam vineam dictam la grant vigne domine Aelidis sitam en Perrelles' and 'unam vineam dictam a la Perriere.' In charters of the fourteenth century vineyards are mentioned at Avenay and Mutigny, under the titles of Les Perches, Haut-Bonnet, Praëlles, Les Foissets, Fond de Bonnet, Berard, Chassant, &c. One sold to the abbey in 1334 by Guillaume de Valenciennes was at a spot then, as now, styled Plantelles. In 1336 the justices at Château-Thierry confirmed the Abbess, Madame Clémence, in the 'droit de ban vin'--that is, the right of selling her wine before any one else in the territory of Avenay. This was again confirmed in 1344 by the Bailly of Sézanne, who held that she alone had the right of selling during the month after Christmas, the month after Easter, and the month after Pentecost. Amongst other records is one noting the condemnation of Perresson Legris, clerk, of Avenay, who was sentenced in 1460 by the Bailly of Epernay to a fine of 60 sols, for selling his wine during the month after Christmas without permission of the Dames d'Avenay. The charters of the fifteenth century also abound in references to vineyards, or 'droits de vinage,' appertaining to the abbey at Les Coutures, Champ Bernard, Auches, Bois de Brousse, Thonnay, &c., in the territory of Avenay, and Les Charmières, Torchamp, Saussaye, &c., at Mutigny.]

[Footnote 386: In 1668, an epoch at which the wines of Avenay had acquired a high reputation, the abbey owned 43 arpents of vineland at Avenay, Mutigny, and Mareuil, yielding the preceding year 200 poinçons of wine, the sale of which produced 6000 livres. It also had 13 pressoirs banaux, which were farmed for 50 poinçons of wine, and tithes of wine at Mareuil amounting to 14 poinçons and 460 livres in money, and at Ambonnay amounting to 3 poinçons, the total of 67 poinçons fetching 1206 livres. The valet who looked after the vines had 50 livres per annum, and the cooper who looked after the wines, 40 livres. The total cost of stakes, manure, culture, pruning, wine-making, and casks was 2700 livres per annum. Ten pièces of wine 'of the best of the abbey, and worth 300 livres,' were annually given away in caques and bottles to 'persons of quality and friends of the house, and travellers of condition who pass;' whilst 120 poinçons, valued at 3000 livres, were consumed at the abbey itself. The abbey was partially destroyed by fire in 1754; and its destruction was completed during the Revolution, at which epoch its vineyards yielded a net revenue of 2500 livres.]

[Footnote 387: In addition to Madame de la Marck, who was connected, by the marriage of one of her brothers to a princess of the house of Bourbon, with Henri Quatre, and to whose influence with that monarch the execution of the 'Traité des Vendanges' was mainly due, the roll of the Abbesses of Avenay comprises several illustrious personages, amongst them St. Bertha; Bertha II., daughter of the Emperor Lothaire; the ex-Empress Teutberga; Bénédicte de Gonzague, daughter of the Duke de Nevers, and sister of the Princess Palatine, who took such an active part during the troubles of the Fronde; and ladies of the illustrious families of Saulx Tavannes, Craon, Levis, Beauvillers, Brulart de Sillery, Boufflers, &c. M. Louis Paris, in his _Histoire de l'Abbaye d'Avenay_, gives some curious instances of the exercise of the 'haut et basse justice' possessed by these ladies. In 1587, under the rule of Madame de la Marck, we find the Bailly of Avenay, acting as 'first magistrate of Madame l'Abbesse,' sentencing one man and four women 'to be hung, strangled, and burnt, and the goods belonging to them confiscated to the profit of the Lady Justiciary,' for the crime of sorcery. In 1645 we find a 'sentence of the Bailly of Avenay against Simeon Delacoste, accused and convicted of the crime of homicide committed upon the person of Jean Bernier, and for this condemned to be hung and strangled by the executioner on a gallows erected in the public market-place, with confiscation of 300 livres, to be levied on his goods, to the profit of the Lady Justiciary.' When the criminal could not be caught, as was the case with Nicholas Thimot, vine-grower at Avenay in 1555, the sentence ran that he should 'be hung in effigy, and his goods confiscated to the profit of Madame.']

[Footnote 388: The following lines, quoted by M. Philibert Milsand in his _Procès poétique touchant les Vins de Bourgogne et de Champagne_, may be taken as referring either to the wine or the scenery:

'Si quis in hoc mundo vult vivere corde jocoso,
Vadat Cumerias sumere delicias.'
]

[Footnote 389: In Arthur Young's time (1787-9) an arpent of vineyard at Hautvillers, valued at 4000 livres, yielded from two to four pièces, or hogsheads, of wine, which sold from 700 to 900 livres the queue (two pièces). This is more than the wine would ordinarily realise to-day, although in years of scarcity it has fetched 700 francs the pièce, and in 1880 as much as 1000 francs.]

[Footnote 390: Cazotte, ex-Commissary-General of the Navy and author of the _Diable Amoureux_, who was guillotined as a Royalist in 1792, had a magnificently fitted mansion at Pierry. He distinguished himself by his opposition to the pretensions of the Abbey of Hautvillers, which in 1775 claimed the right of taking tithes at Pierry not only in the vineyards, but on the wine in the cellars. Cazotte argued that unless the monks chose to take their due proportion of grapes left for them at the foot of each vine, all they were entitled to was a monetary commutation of the tithe; for the wine being usually made of grapes from a dozen different sources, many of them beyond their domain, it would be impossible to ascertain the proportion that was their due. The Parliament of Paris decided, however, that the abbey might take the fortieth of the wine a month after it was barrelled, unless the vine-growers preferred to give them the fortieth part of all the grapes brought to the press. The fact was that the monks really wished to check the practice of mixing grapes from different districts at the press, for fear wine equal to their own should result from this plan, first satisfactorily put in practice by Dom Perignon. Arthur Young mentions that an arpent of vines at Pierry was valued at 2000 livres, half the price the same extent commanded at Hautvillers.]

[Footnote 391: M. Armand Bourgeois, in his work on _Le Sourdon et sa Vallée_, mentions a local tradition to the effect that Saint Remi, who from his will is shown to have owned vinelands of some extent in a part of this district still known as the Evêché, installed a hermit in this said grotto of the Pierre de Saint Mamert to supervise his vineyards.]

[Footnote 392: Bertin du Rocheret writes thus in 1744, and adds that the aspect of Avize had at that epoch become entirely changed by the numerous fine 'maisons de vendange' erected there.]

[Footnote 393: In 1205 Gilbert Belon conferred an annual gift on the Abbey of St. Martin of seven hogsheads of _vinage_ derived from the vineyards of Oger.]

[Footnote 394:

'Je fus jadis de terre vertueuse
Nez de Virtuz, pais renommé,
Où il avait ville très gracieuse,
Dont li bon vin sont en maints lieux nommés.'

Eustache Deschamps' poem on the Burning of Vertus.
]

[Footnote 395:

'Quant vient de si noble racine
Come du droit plan de Beaune,
Qui ne porte pas couleur jaune
Mais vermeille, franche, plaisant,
Qui fait tout autre odeur taisant,
Quand elle est aportée en place.'

Deschamps' _La Charte des Bons Enfans de Vertus_. ]

[Footnote 396:

'Si vous alez au benefice
Mieulx vous vauldra que ung clistère.'--Ibid.
]

[Footnote 397: In 1880 the Vertus wine realised the remarkably high price of from 1200 to 1400 francs the pièce.]

[Footnote 398: St. Evremond's _Letters_ (London, 1728).]

[Footnote 399: St. Simon's _Mémoires_.]

[Footnote 400: Bertin du Rocheret's /MS./ extracts from the _Registre des Assemblées du peuple de la ville d'Epernay_.]

[Footnote 401: Henderson's _History of Ancient and Modern Wines_.]

[Footnote 402: Arthur Young's _Travels in France in 1787-8-9_.]

[Footnote 403: Anonymous _Journal de ce qui s'est passé d'intéressant à Reims en 1814_.]

[Footnote 404: Dom Chatelain, in his /MS./ notes on the _History of Reims_, relates that Henri Quatre, being one day at Sully's, asked the Minister for some breakfast, and after drinking a glass or two of wine, exclaimed, 'Ventre Saint Gris, this is a grand wine; it beats mine of Ay and all others. I should like to know where it comes from.' ''Tis my friend Taissy,' answered Sully, 'who sends it to me.' 'Then I must be introduced to him,' said the King; which was accordingly done. The wines of Taissy had a high reputation as late as the eighteenth century. They were classed by St. Evremond and Brossette, the commentator of Boileau, amongst the best vintages of the Champagne, and their reputation was maintained by the care bestowed by the Abbé Godinot on the vineyards which he owned here.]

[Footnote 405:

'Qu'Horace du Falerne entonne les louanges,
Que de son vieux Massique il vante les attraits;
Tous ces vins si fameux n'égaleront jamais
Du charmant Sillery les heureuses vendanges!'

Translation by Le Monnoye in the _Recueil des Poésies Latines et Françaises_, &c., Paris, 1712.]

[Footnote 406: The wine of Verzenay, like that of Bouzy, owes much of its reputation to the example set in the eighteenth century by the Abbé Godinot, author of the _Mémoire_ on the cultivation of the grape and the manufacture of wine in the Champagne, published in 1711. He owned extensive vineyards at Verzenay and Bouzy, and his prolonged investigations as to the species of vines and composts best suited to the district led to a complete revolution in the system of culture and mode of pressing the fruit. Bertin du Rocheret praises 'the excellent wine of Verzenay' served at the banquets celebrating the conclusion of the assembly of the Etats de Vitry, held at Châlons in 1744.]

[Footnote 407: The value in 1880 of a hectare of vines, equivalent to nearly two and a half acres, was as follows:

At Verzy, Verzenay, and Sillery, 35 to 38,000 francs.
" Bouzy and Ambonnay, 38 " 40,000 "
" Ay and Dizy, 40 " 45,000 "
" Hautvillers, 20 " 22,000 "
" Pierry, 18,000 "
" Cramant and Avize, 38 " 40,000 "
" Le Mesnil, 22 " 25,000 "
]

[Footnote 408: This was far from being the first appearance of the pest in this district. From 1779 to 1785 similar ravages drove the vignerons to despair; but the weather during the last-named year suddenly turning wet and cold, just at the epoch of the butterflies emerging from their chrysalids, the evil disappeared as though by enchantment, an event duly acknowledged by parochial rejoicings and religious processions. In 1816 similar ravages took place; and from 1820 to 1830 the pyrale also caused great devastation.

In the year 1613, Jehan Pussot, the local chronicler of Reims, notes that a large proportion of the vines were destroyed by 'a great concourse of worms,' which attacked those plants which the frost had spared. This would establish that either the pyrale or the cochylis was known to the Champenois viticulturists at the commencement of the seventeenth century.]

[Footnote 409: In 1873, in all the higher-class vineyards, as much as two francs and a quarter per kilogramme (11_d._ per lb.) were paid, being more than treble the average price. And yet the vintage was a most unsatisfactory one, owing to the deficiency of sun and abundance of wet throughout the summer. The market, however, was in great need of wine, and the fruit while still ungathered was bought up at most exorbitant prices by the _spéculateurs_ who supply the _vin brut_ to the Champagne manufacturers.

In 1874 the grapes of the Mountain sold from at 55 to 160 francs the caque, according to the crus; and those of the Côte d'Avize at from 1 f. 25 c. to 2 f. per kilogramme. In 1875, on the other hand, grapes could be obtained at Verzenay, Verzy, Ambonnay, and Bouzy at from 45 to 55 francs the caque; and at Vertus, Le Mesnil, Oger, Grauves, Cramant, and Avize, at from 40 to 70 centimes the kilogramme. By far the highest price secured by the growers for their grapes was in 1880, when the produce of the grand crus of the Mountain fetched as much as 220 f. the caque, equal to nearly 3 f. 60 c. the kilogramme, or about 1_s._ 5_d._ per lb. It was, as usual, scarcity rather than quality that caused this unprecedented rise in price.]

[Footnote 410: M. Mauméné relates in his _Traité du Travail des Vins_ that on one occasion, when, as an experiment, 3000 first-class bottles, which had already been used, were employed anew, only fifteen or sixteen of the whole number resisted the pressure. Moreover, if much broken glass is remelted down and used in the manufacture, the bottles do not turn out well, the second fusion of silicates never having the same cohesion as the first. The glass-works of Sèvres and Bercy, which melt down most of the broken glass collected in Paris, have never been able to supply bottles strong enough for sparkling wines.]

[Footnote 411: Loivre is about seven miles from Reims on the road to Laon.]

[Footnote 412: It is calculated that wine, the grape sugar in which yields ten per cent of alcohol, according to the average in Champagne, would, if bottled immediately after pressing, produce enough carbonic acid gas to develop a pressure of thirty-two atmospheres. But such a pressure is never developed, as the wine is not bottled directly it leaves the press; besides which no bottle could stand it. From four to six atmospheres insure a lively explosion and a brisk creamy foam. It is necessary, therefore, that fermentation should have been carried on till at least three-fourths of the sugar have been converted into alcohol and carbonic acid gas before the wine is drawn off for bottling, for even the very best bottles burst under a pressure of eight atmospheres.

A few words on the origin and development of the effervescent properties of Champagne will not be out of place here. These are due, as already explained, to the presence of a large quantity of carbonic acid gas, the evolution of which has been prevented by the bottling of the wine prior to the end of the alcoholic fermentation. The source of carbonic acid gas exists in all wines, and they may be all rendered sparkling by the same method of treatment. Still, no effervescent wine can compare with the finest growths of the Champagne, for these possess the especial property of retaining a large portion of their sugar during, and even after, fermentation; besides which, the soil imparts a native bouquet that no other wine can match.

Carbonic acid gas is one of the two products of the fermentation of grape sugar, the other being alcohol. In wine fermented in casks it rises to the surface, and escapes through the bunghole left open for the purpose. The case is different with wine fermenting in bottles tightly secured by corks. Part of the gas developed rises into the chamber or vacant space left in the bottle, where, mingling with the atmospheric air, it exercises a constantly increasing pressure on the surface of the wine. This pressure at length becomes so strong as to keep all the gas subsequently formed dissolved in the wine itself, which it saturates, as it were, and thereby converts into sparkling wine. Upon the bottle being opened, the gas accumulated in the chamber rushes into the air, producing a slight explosion, or pop, and freeing from pressure the gas which had remained dissolved in the wine, and which in turn escapes in the shape of numberless tiny bubbles, forming the foam so pleasing to the eye on rising to the surface.

Sometimes on opening a bottle of Champagne the pop is loud, but the effervescence feeble and transitory; and, on the other hand, there is merely a slight explosion, and yet the wine froths and sparkles vigorously and continuously. The two bottles may contain the same quantity of gas, but in the one there is more in the chamber and less dissolved in the wine, and hence the loud pop and slight sparkle; while in the other the pressure is low, and the explosion consequently slighter, but there is more gas in the wine itself, and the effervescence is proportionately greater and more lasting. In the former case the wine has received the addition of, or has contained from the outset, some matter calculated to diminish its power of dissolving carbonic acid gas, and is unsuitable for making good sparkling wine. The nature of the effervescence is one of the best tests of the quality of the wine. Gas naturally dissolved does not all escape at once on the removal of the pressure, but, on the contrary, about two-thirds of it are retained by the viscidity of the wine. The better and more natural the wine, the more intimately the carbonic acid gas remains dissolved in it, and the finer its bubbles.

The form of the glass out of which Champagne is drunk has an influence on its effervescence. The wine sparkles far better in a glass terminating in a point, like the old-fashioned _flûte_, or the modern goblet or patera, with a hollow stem, than in one with a rounded bottom. The reason is that any point formed around the liquid, as instanced in the pointed bottoms of these glasses, or in the liquid, as may be proved by putting the end of a pointed glass rod into the wine, favours the disengagement of the gas. Powder of any kind presents a number of tiny points, and hence the dropping of a little powdered sugar into Champagne excites effervescence. Porous bodies like bread-crumbs produce the same effect. Even dust has a similar action; and the wine will froth better in a badly-wiped glass than in one perfectly clean, though it would hardly do to put forward such an excuse as this for using dirty goblets.

The lively pop of the cork is less esteemed in England than in certain circles in France, where many hosts would be sadly disappointed if the wine they put before their guests did not go off with a loud bang, causing the ladies to scream and the gentlemen to laugh. A brisk foam, too, is absolutely necessary for the prestige of the wine, and 'grand mousseux' is a quality much sought after by the general public on the other side of the Channel. It is not rare to meet with wines of a high class in which the removal of the cork produces a loud explosion; but unfortunately the brisk report and sharp but transitory rush of foam are features easily imparted by artificial means. The ordinary white wines of Lorraine and other provinces receive a certain addition of spirit and liqueur, and are then artificially charged with carbonic acid gas obtained from carbonate of lime, chalk, and similar materials, after the fashion in which soda-water is made. These wines, sold as Champagne, eject their corks with a loud pop, but three-fourths of the carbonic acid gas escape at the same time, and the wine soon becomes flat and dead; whereas a naturally sparkling wine of good quality left open for three hours and then recorked will be found fresh and drinkable the next day.

Both the explosion and the subsequent effervescence are aided by a high temperature, which assists the development of the gas. Cold has the opposite effect, and iced wine neither pops nor sparkles. It, however, retains, if genuine, the whole of the carbonic acid gas held dissolved, which is not the case with the imitations spoken of.

Were it not that the question has been seriously started on more than one occasion, and only solved to the satisfaction of the questioner by a chemico-anatomical explanation, it would hardly be worth while touching upon the supposed hurtfulness of the carbonic acid gas contained in sparkling wines. The fact of accidents frequently occurring in breweries, distilleries, wine-presses, &c., from the accumulation of this gas, to breathe which for a few seconds is mortal, has led some people to wonder how Champagne, whilst containing so large a proportion of it, can be swallowed with impunity. The gas, however, which produces fatal results when inhaled into the lungs, by depriving the blood of the oxygen which it should find there, has in the stomach a beneficial effect, serving to promote digestion. In drinking Champagne it is conveyed direct to this latter region, so that no danger whatever exists, any more than in the mineral waters.--Mainly condensed from E. J. Mauméné's _Traité du Travail des Vins_.]

[Footnote 413: For a long time the most erroneous ideas as to the cause of such breakage and the means of preventing it prevailed. Tasting, which was most relied on for ascertaining how far fermentation had gone, could not be depended upon with accuracy, though the rule of thumb laid down by some makers was that the time to bottle with the least risk of breakage was when the sweet taste had disappeared, and vinous flavour developed itself. The aerometers subsequently introduced failed to answer the purpose, because the saccharine matter was not the only thing capable of influencing them. The result usually was either the bottling of a must so full of effervescence as to break the bottles, or of wine already completely fermented and incapable of effervescing at all.]

[Footnote 414: In some establishments tables made after the same fashion replace the racks, whilst another plan of coaxing the sediment down towards the cork is to stack the bottles at the outset in double rows, with their necks inclining downwards, laths placed between each layer maintaining them in their position. This method effects a great economy of time and space, the bottles requiring on an average only a few days on the racks prior to shipment to thoroughly complete the operation.]

[Footnote 415: As the real origin of this system is a matter which has excited no small amount of controversy, and as several claimants to the honour of its discovery have had their names put forward by different writers, the following extracts from a letter from M. Alfred Werlé, of the house founded by Madame Clicquot, may serve to render honour where it is really due: 'Already, in 1806 (I am unable to speak of an earlier period with absolute certainty), the bottles were placed on tables, like to-day, with their heads downwards; each bottle being taken out of its hole, raised in the air, and shaken with the hand, so as to cause the cream of tartar and the deposit it contained to fall upon the cork, the holes being round, and the bottles placed straight downwards. This lasted till 1818, when a man named Müller, an employé of Madame Clicquot, suggested to her that the bottles should be left in the table whilst being shaken, and that the holes should be cut obliquely, so that the bottles might remain inclined. He maintained that one would thus obtain a wine of far greater limpidity. The trial was made, and every day, with a view of keeping this new process a secret, Müller and Madame Clicquot shut themselves up alone in the cellars, and shook the bottles unperceived. In 1821 Müller was assisted by a workman named Mathieu Binder; and in 1823 or 1824, Madame Clicquot having purchased from M. Morizet a _cuvée_ of wine which was shaken and prepared in this merchant's cellars, one of his employés named Thomassin became acquainted with the new method, and resolved to practise it; since when it gradually spread, and eventually was generally adopted. M. Werlé senior recollects perfectly well that when he arrived at Madame Clicquot's in 1821 it was only at her establishment that the bottles were shaken in this manner. The practice of shaking the bottles was a very old one, and no more invented by Müller than by Thomassin; but the former certainly effected great improvements by employing the system of oblique holes, and shaking the bottles in the table and not in the air.']

[Footnote 416: M. Mauméné has pointed out that if a solution of tannin or alum has been added to the _cuvée_ at the time of fining, the deposit is certain to be granular and non-adherent. But he justly remarks that these solutions, especially the latter, though doing good to the wine, have a precisely opposite effect upon the human stomach that consumes it.]

[Footnote 417: The Regiment de Champagne was one of the most famous of the _vieux corps_, and claimed to be the second oldest regiment in the French army.]

[Footnote 418: The system of dosing the wine does not appear to have been practised prior to the present century.]

[Footnote 419: The high favour in which sugar-candy is held for mixing with this Champagne liqueur dates from the latter part of the last century, when there was a perfect mania for everything in a crystallised form, as being the height of condensation and purity. The competition between the first houses of Reims and Epernay to secure the largest and finest crystals was very keen, and it was considered disgraceful for any firm of standing to make use of sugar-candy of a yellow tinge or in small crystals. Latterly it has been demonstrated that these expensive crystals contain more water and less saccharine matter than an equal weight of loaf-sugar, and that they sometimes contain a glutinous element capable of imparting an insipid flavour to the wine.--Mauméné's _Traité du Travail des Vins_.]

[Footnote 420: Instances have been known of additions of 25 and even 30 per cent of liqueur, though the average may be taken to be for Germany and France, 15 to 18 per cent; America, 10 to 15 per cent; England, 2 to 6 per cent.]

[Footnote 421: The corrosive action of rust upon the wire has led to several attempts to replace it, and some Champagne houses have adopted more or less ingenious appliances of metal, &c. Tinned iron wire has been found to resist rust, but is too expensive; whilst an experiment with galvanised wire resulted in serious illness amongst the workmen handling it, owing to the poisonous fumes evolved by the zinc when acted upon by the acids of the wine.]

[Footnote 422: M. Viollet-le-Duc, _Dictionnaire raisonné de l'Architecture du Vme au XVIme Siècle_.]

[Footnote 423: An engraving of this tower, removed while the present work was passing through the press, will be found on p. 50.]

[Footnote 424: See the engraving on p. 16.]

[Footnote 425: Read before the Academy of Reims in February 1845, printed by them in their Transactions, and subsequently republished in volume form.]

[Footnote 426: It is generally supposed that the gate took its name from a hospital standing a short distance without the walls, and destined for the reception either of lepers or of pilgrims arriving after nightfall. The prevalent opinion is that it bore the inscription _Dei merito_, translated as Dieu le mérite, which became corrupted into Dieu-Lumière. Under Louis XI. it certainly figures as Di Merito.]

[Footnote 427: A curious old engraving copied from an ancient tapestry represents the entry of the royal procession into Reims through the Porte Dieu-Lumière. Joan of Arc, beside the king and in company with the Dukes of Bourbon and Alençon, bears the banner of France; whilst her father and mother are seen arriving with the king's baggage by another road.]

[Footnote 428: /A.D./ 499.]

[Footnote 429: Victor Fievet's _Histoire d'Epernay_.]

[Footnote 430: M. A. Nicaise's _Epernay et l'Abbaye de St. Martin_.]

[Footnote 431: Ibid.]

[Footnote 432: Victor Fievet's _Histoire d'Epernay_. In December 1540, when the eschevins fixed the 'vinage,' the queue of wine was valued at eight to nine livres.]

[Footnote 433: The partiality of Charles V. for the wine of Ay has been elsewhere spoken of. The vendangeoir mentioned was in existence in 1726.]

[Footnote 434: Victor Fievet's _Histoire d'Epernay_.]

[Footnote 435: M. A. Nicaise's _Epernay et l'Abbaye de St. Martin_.]

[Footnote 436: Ibid.]

[Footnote 437: The thoroughfare at Epernay known as the Rempart de la Tour Biron commemorates the above event.]

[Footnote 438: Victor Fievet's _Histoire d'Epernay_.]

[Footnote 439:

'Ce diable à quatre
A le triple talent
De boire et de battre,
Et d'être vert-galant.'
]

[Footnote 440:

'On lui verse le vin de la côte voisine,
Pétillant, savoureux qui soudain l'illumine
D'étincelants rayons de joie et de gaîté;
Redevenant poëte, il chante la beauté
Qui l'aide à conquérir doucement la Champagne.'

M. Camille Blondiot's _Henri IV. au Siège d'Epernay_.
]

[Footnote 441:

'Viens aurore,
Je t'implore,
Je suis gai quand je te voi;
La bergère
Qui m'est chère
Est vermeille comme toi.

Elle est blonde,
Sans seconde,
Elle a la taille à la main;
Sa prunelle
Etincelle
Comme l'astre du matin.

De rosée,
Arrosée,
La rose a moins de fraîcheur;
Une hermine
Est moins fine,
Le lis a moins de blancheur.

D'ambroisie,
Bien choisie,
Dupuis se nourrit à part;
Et sa bouche
Quand j'y touche
Me parfume de nectar.'
]

[Footnote 442: From the _Extrait du Registre et Papiers des Assemblés du Peuple de la Ville d'Epernay_, preserved in the /MSS./ of Bertin du Rocheret.]

[Footnote 443: Bertin du Rocheret's /MSS./]

[Footnote 444: Ibid.]

[Footnote 445: _Mémoire concernant la Ville d'Epernay_, by Maître François Stapart, notaire au bailliage, published in 1749.]

[Footnote 446: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.]

[Footnote 447: Arthur Young's _Travels in France in the Years 1787-8-9_.]

[Footnote 448: Victor Fievet's _Histoire d'Epernay_. In the list of expenses incurred on the passage of Louis XVI. and his family, four hundred livres are set down to 'the Sieur Memmie Cousin, innkeeper and merchant at Epernay, for the dinner of the king, the queen, and the royal family, as well as for an indemnity for the furniture broken at the said Cousin's.'

As regards the price of the wines of the River during the Revolutionary epoch, an old account-book of Messrs. Moët & Chandon shows that in 1797 the firm paid for the white wine of Epernay and Avize 200 francs, for that of Chouilly 180 francs, and for that of Pierry and Cramant 150 francs per pièce; whilst that of Ay cost from 565 to 600 francs the queue. Bottles in 1790 only cost 16 livres 10 sols the hundred.]

[Footnote 449: The Clos St. Pierre is now the property of M. Charles Porquet, and the ancient seignorial residence of the monks of St. Pierre, at Pierry, is occupied by M. Papelart. Both these gentlemen are wine-merchants.]

[Footnote 450: Cazotte, writing in October 1791, speaks of the village as peopled with 'gros propriétaires;' and in November, that it had 'thirty-two households of well-to-do people.' Amongst its inhabitants were the Marquis Tirant de Flavigny, Dubois de Livry, Quatresols de la Motte, De Lastre d'Aubigny, De Lantage, &c., most of whose residences are still extant. In October 1792 several accusations were made against soldiers for picking and eating grapes in the vineyards of Pierry and Moussy, belonging to Cazotte, De la Motte, De Lantage, D'Aubigny, &c.]

[Footnote 451: Part of it now serves as the 'maison communale' and school-house of the village.]

[Footnote 452: Arrested at Pierry in August 1792, in consequence of the discovery, on the sacking of the Tuileries, of a new plan of escape for the royal family, sent by him to his friend Ponteau, secretary of the Civil List, Cazotte was brought to Paris and immured, in company with his daughter Elizabeth, in the prison of the Abbaye. Arraigned before the self-constituted tribunal presided over by the butcher Maillard, on the night of the 3d September, the fatal words 'To La Force,' equivalent to a sentence of death, were pronounced; and Cazotte was about to fall beneath the sabres already raised against him, when Elizabeth covered his body with her own, and by her heroic appeals induced the assassins to forego their prey. She even had the courage to drink with them to the Republic, and with her father was escorted home in triumph. A few days later, however, he was rearrested, condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal, and on the 25th September ascended the scaffold, from whence he cried with a firm voice to the multitude, 'I die as I have lived, faithful to God and my king.'

Under date of the 10 Prairial An II. (1793), the citizen Bourbon was appointed by the municipality of Pierry to cultivate the vineyards 'du gillotiné (_sic_) Cazotte.']

[Footnote 453: In 1775 the Abbot of Hautvillers, as _décimateur_ of Pierry, claimed to take tithe of a fortieth of all wines in the cellars of the village. This claim being rejected by the baillage of Epernay in 1777, he appealed to the Parliament of Paris. Cazotte undertook the case of his fellow-proprietors, pleading that the abbey, which, according to strict law, was bound to take the tithe in the shape of grapes left at the foot of each vine, had long since replaced this by a monetary commutation; and that the inhabitants of Pierry, like the other wine-growers of the Champagne, being 'obliged, in order to obtain perfection in their wines, to mix the grapes of several crus and different tithings, it would be impossible to tithe the wine itself.' He also argued that the question had been settled by a decision on the same point in favour of the inhabitants of Ay and Dizy. However, the monks obtained a decree from parliament authorising them to take the fortieth of the vintage a month after the wines had been barrelled, unless the wine-growers preferred 'to pay the tithe at the wine-press, in form of the fortieth load of grapes free from all mixture.' The inhabitants appealed in 1780, pleading the impossibility of this plan of tithing at the press, on account of the expense and of the difficulty of sorting out the grapes from those brought from Moussy, Vinay, Monthelon, Cuis, Epernay, and other districts in which they had also vineyards. The Revolution cut the Gordian knot of this affair, which really arose from the wish of the monks to hinder as much as possible that plan of mixing grapes from different sources, to which the perfection of their own wine was due.]

[Footnote 454: In January 1790 the inhabitants of Pierry unanimously elected Cazotte their first mayor under the new _régime_. A decree signed by him in this capacity, and dated April 11, 1790, fixes the price for a day's work in the vineyards at 12 sols. In 1793 the municipality of the adjoining district of Moussy fixed the day's hire of the vintager at 25 sous, of horses employed in the vintage at 7 livres 10 sous, and of asses at 5 livres. As regards the price of the local cru, amongst the items of the accounts of the syndic of Moussy for the years 1787-8 is the following: 'For thirteen bottles of stringed wine (vin fisselé) sent to Paris to the procureur of the community (Failly lawsuit), 13 livres.' The community were then engaged in a lawsuit with the Count de Failly respecting a wood. During the Revolutionary epoch it was decreed by the municipality of Pierry that a vineyard known as les Rennes should, on account of the resemblance to les Reines, be in future styled les Sans-culottes. It has since resumed its old name.]

[Footnote 455: The story of Cazotte prophesying not only his own fate, but that of the king and queen, Condorcet, Bailly, Malesherbes, Nicolai, the Duchess de Grammont, and others who perished during the Terror, at a dinner given at an Academician's in 1788, has been proved to be a mere invention on the part of La Harpe. Nevertheless there seems but little doubt that he distinctly foresaw many coming evils; and a native of Pierry, M. Armand Bourgeois, asserts that his maternal grandfather was one day at Cazotte's house in the village, when the entire company were completely upset by their host's prophecies of a coming revolution.]

[Footnote 456: P. Jannet's _Recueil des Poésies françaises des 15me et 16me Siècles_.]

[Footnote 457: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.]

[Footnote 458: St. Evremond's _Letters_, &c. (London, 1714).]

[Footnote 459: Max Sutaine's _Essai sur le Vin de Champagne_.]

[Footnote 460: Bertin du Rocheret's /MSS./ _Histoire d'Epernay_.]

[Footnote 461:

'Ay produit les meilleurs vins--
J'en prends à témoin tout le monde;
Mais vous préférez ceux de Reims,
Ay produit les meilleurs vins.
Ce sont les premiers, les plus fins,
Et Saint Evremont me seconde.
Ay produit les meilleurs vins--
J'en prends à témoin tout le monde.

Charles Quint s'y connoissoit bien
Il en faisoit la différence;
Et mieux que son maître Adrien,
Charles Quint s'y connoissoit bien,
Pour en boire, il ne tint a rien
Qu'il ne vînt demeurer en France.
Charles Quint s'y connoissoit bien
Il en faisoit la différence.

Pour qu'on ne pût le mélanger,
Et que sa table fût complète,
Lui même faisoit vendanger,
Pour qu'on ne pût le mélanger.
Léon craignant même danger,
D'un pressoir d'Ay fit emplète,
Pour qu'on ne pût le mélanger,
Et que sa table fût complète.'

The Adrien mentioned in the second verse was Pope Adrian VI., who had been the Emperor's preceptor, and who by his influence obtained the tiara on the death of Leo X. Unlike his predecessor, he was very simple in his habits.]

[Footnote 462: _Maison Rustique_, edition of 1574.]

[Footnote 463: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.]

[Footnote 464: An allusion to the curse pronounced by St. Tresain against the men of Ay.]

[Footnote 465: _Maison Rustique_ (1582), translated by Richard Surflet (London, 1600).]

[Footnote 466: Ibid.]

[Footnote 467: Ibid.]

[Footnote 468: Paulmier's treatise, _De Vino et Pomaceo_ (1588).]

[Footnote 469: _Maison Rustique_ (1582).]

[Footnote 470: Legrand d'Aussy's _Vie privée des Français_.]

[Footnote 471: Louis Perrier's _Mémoire sur le Vin de Champagne_.]

[Footnote 472: _Recueil des Poésies latines et françaises sur le Vin de Champagne_ (Paris, 1712). Gonesse, a village of the department of Seine-et-Oise, about ten miles to the north of Paris, had a high reputation for its bread for several centuries.]

[Footnote 473:

'Notre bon roi, le grand Henry,
En régaloit sa belle hôtesse,
Quand il couchoit à Damery,
Notre bon roi, le grand Henry,
C'étoit-là son jus favori;
Et son pain, celui de Gonesse,
Notre bon roi, le grand Henry,
En régaloit sa belle hôtesse.'

Published in the _Mercure_ of January 1728. Henry was accustomed to speak of the Présidente as his 'belle hôtesse.']

[Footnote 474: Circa 1590.]

[Footnote 475: _Théâtre de l'Agriculture et Mesnage des Champs_ (1600).]

[Footnote 476: Published at Orleans, 1605. As regards the price of the newly-made wine of Ay at this epoch, Jehan Pussot says that, in 1604, it fetched from 25 to 45 livres; in 1605, from 60 livres upwards; and in 1609, from 100 to 120 livres, at the epoch of the vintage.]

[Footnote 477: Chaulieu says that St. Evremond

'Ne chante dans ses vers heureux
Que l'inconstance et la Tocane'--

Tocane being usually made of the wine of Ay.]

[Footnote 478: St. Evremond's _Works_ (London, 1714).]

[Footnote 479: Chaulieu extols the Tocane of Ay, and some verses of Voltaire have been quoted on p. 61.]

[Footnote 480: Arthur Young's _Travels in France in the Years 1787-8-9_.]

[Footnote 481: CHAMPAGNE.

Less for thy grace and glory, land of ours,
Than for thy dolour, dear,
Let the grief go; and here--
Here's to thy skies, thy women, and thy flowers!
France, take the toast, thy women and thy roses;
France, to thy wine, more wealth unto thy store!
And let the lips a grievous memory closes
Smile their proud smile once more!

Swarthy Falernian, Massica the Red,
Were ye the nectars poured
At the great gods' broad board?
No, poor old wines, all but in name long dead,
Nectar's Champagne--the sparkling soul of mirth,
That, bubbling o'er with laughing gas,
Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,
And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.

'I am the blood Burgundian sunshine makes;
A fine old feudal knight,
Of bluff and boisterous might,
Whose casque feels--ah, so heavy when one wakes!'
'And I, the dainty Bordeaux, violets'
Perfume, and whose rare rubies gourmets prize;
My subtile savour gets
In partridge wings its daintiest allies.'

Ah, potent chiefs, Bordeaux and Burgundy,
If we must answer make,
This sober counsel take:
Messeigneurs, sing your worth less haughtily,
For 'tis Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth,
That, bubbling o'er with laughing gas,
Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,
And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.

Ay, 'tis the true, the typic wine of France;
Ay, 'tis our heart that sparkles in our eyes,
And higher beats for every dire mischance.
It was the wit that made our fathers wise,
That made their valour gallant, gay,
When plumes were stirred by winds of waving swords,
And chivalry's defiance spoke the words:
'A vous, Messieurs les Anglais, les premiers!'

Let the dull beer-apostle till he's hoarse
Vent his small spleen and spite--
Fate fill his sleepless night
With nightmares of invincible remorse!
We sing Champagne, the sparkling soul of mirth,
That, bubbling o'er with laughing gas,
Flashes gay sunbeams in the glass,
And like our flag goes proudly round the earth.
]

End of Project Gutenberg's A History of Champagne, by Henry Vizetelly